Socks: April 2004 Archives

Meilenweit Cotton MultiJacquard #405 Socks with Afterthought Heel

Yesterday was a very good day. One of those days that makes me tell John "I think we need to go out for a celebratory Margarita or two at Frontera Grill" -- for those of you who are still searching for the perfect margarita, you need go no further. It's the Blue Agave Margarita at Frontera. Shaken, not stirred, thank you.

As you might guess this held up my progress on finishing the secon MultiJacquard sock. But, at 11 pm, fortified by two margaritas, some awesome ceviche and some incredible desserts (yes, Frontera is one of my favorite places in the whole of Chicago to eat) I started on the heel. After all, I'm leaving for a major fiber experience, and a girl's just got to have a pair of new socks.

I'll spare you too much summary (mostly because I am still not completely packed yet and my plane leaves at noon) and say 1) Great Yarn -- I love it and will definitely work with it again/order more. 2) Afterthought heels with a 6 point decrease ROCK! This is the nicest fitting heel that I've encountered. 3) Next time I will use 10% fewer stitches (i.e. instead of casting on 64 I will cast on 56).

Armed with my new socks, I am totally psyched for a fibery adventure with a great group of people. What could be better than spending a weekend with Bonne Marie, Carolyn, Leigh, Claudia and Silvia?

The hardest part is figuring out how big an extra bag I need to bring to haul back my treasures.

The good thing about finishing last week's homework early and having my midterm next week is that I get to spend most of my time working on my knitting for a little while. I'm very psyched about having started this little project:

The Start of the Mermaid Socks in Regia 5047

This is the first of two Mermaid socks from Lucy Neatby's "Cool Socks, Warm Feet" book -- a sock knitting book that focuses on doing creative and interesting things with self-patterning sock yarn.

I have to start off this post by being honest and telling you, that while I am a total sock fan, I am not a total knitting socks on double pointed needles fan. I do like this book, but I while I admired the patterns (and find her advice to be absolutely excellent), when I realized I'd have to translate everything from DP language to 2 circs language, I put it on the backburner for a while.

When I finished the first of the Cotton Jacquard socks, I decided it would be okay if I cast on for another, more interesting sock project. Initially, I thought it would be fun to start a beaded sock kit that I have. Then I decided that beaded knitting is not very portable, and for a little while I need my socks to be portable. Then I got to looking through Lucy Neatby's book again. All of her patterns have interesting heels and toes, so it was a chance to learn something new and do something a little more challenging. Since I had the perfect yarn for the Mermaid Socks sitting in my stash, I cast on and got started.

If you want an upclose look at a very neat sock pattern click here. The pattern is worked in garter stitch for the cuff and stockinette for the rest of the sock. The cuff was a little tiresome, but the body of the sock moves pretty quickly.

So far I haven't had to do a lot of DP to 2 Circ translation... but the heel is coming. It's a shortrow garter stitch heel, so I'm going to have to pay close attention to the instructions. This heel is very similar to an afterthought in that she starts a new piece of yarn for the heel, but the rest is going to be brand new for me.

This book has a lot of neat heel and toe and cuff variations. I have a feeling I'll be coming back to it more and more as I try new things with socks. Even if you're not a sock experimentalist, this book has great pointers and hints to help make your sock construction better, and to help custom craft socks for special feel. This book is well written and fun -- it almost makes me want to go out and buy a whole bunch of double pointed needles...

Wow! I had no idea there were so many good ideas out there for programs. I'm going to have to think hard about what the best course of action is. I'll only have about a month to work on it, so at least for my class I need to keep it in the "compact and achievable" range. Right now, I am leaning towards something that would help keep track of needles and projects, because this is a constant problem for me. But I think I am going to have to spend some time talking to the instructors about what is reasonable to think I can accomplish. I have a habit of biting off more than I can chew sometimes...

I'll definitely be posting here as I progress, though.

It was definitely a good weekend for me. My programming homework didn't turn out to be too terrible this week and I got it finished Friday night, which meant I had most of the weekend to play around with my needles. Sock maniac that I am these days, I finished up the first of my Meilenweit Cotton Multi Jacquard socks.

Sock with Afterthought Heel in Meilenweit Cotton Multi Jacquard #405

I just have to sing the praises of this sock yarn! I absolutely adore the stuff. It's a 45% cotton, 42% wool, 13% poly blend. It doesn't have a lot of elasticity as you knit with it, but it makes a wonderful soft fabric with a reasonable amount of elasticity when it is knit up. I also like the fact that it has a very cool to the touch feel. Will there be more of this stuff in my future? You betcha! In fact, I've already put in a little order with my favorite enablers for Meilenweit Cotton Fantasy.

In addition to a new favorite cotton blend sock yarn, I also now have a new favorite sock heel. Take a look at this:

Afterthought Heel with 6 Point Decreases

Instead of decreasing in the same way as I normally decrease for the toes, I followind Dawn Brocco's instructions for a 6 decrease point heel. It makes for a much more heel-shaped heel and there is no Kitchenering at the end.

You start things off just the way you would for a standard afterthought heel, by picking up stitches on either side of your waste-yarn marked area. Then you knit the first round, picking up as many stitches as you think necessary in the gap area. Then you count stitches and divide by 6. The only difficult part is deciding whether you are going to increase or decrease on the next round so that you can get to a number evenly divisible by 6. I increased to 72 stitches and then followed her instructions to set up a decrease at six evenly spaced points along the heel.

The result is a heel that really fit the outline of my heel. I was so excited about it I asked my husband to try the socks on, too, and they were perfect for him, as well (our feet aren't so different, and I like my socks loose, so this isn't as strange as it sounds) -- in fact, if the socks hadn't had so many colors in them, I think he would have decided that he wasn't going to give this one back!

Needless to say, I cast on the second one almost immediately after finishing the heel on Saturday morning. I'm about 3" done on the cuff of the second sock. I would have gotten a little farther along, except that I decided that I needed to start yet another pair of socks, which I'll show off when I get them a little farther along.

Not sure why I am so out of control with the sock thing right now. I have a number of big projects that I really want to work on. I think it might be due to the fact that I don't have a lot of time to knit right now, and I can see progress on a sock even when I am only knitting in short bursts, whereas with my Onde pullover 30 minutes of knitting hardly seems to get me anywhere. That, and my socks are portable enough to go to class with me. Heh. I wonder if my professor will be surprised when I tell her I want to do a knitting application for the Palm...

I'm just squeaking it out for a Monday post. Last night I was knee deep in pointers and memory allocation for my programming class, and after a wonderful weekend with my parents, I just didn't have time to blog about my knitting exploits.

When I get on a roll with something these days, it seems like I just can't stop. Over the weekend I finished up my Opal Southwestern socks in 3705.

Opal 3705 Socks with Afterthought Heel

These socks provided me with an adventure in afterthought heels. I do think that this heel style is rapidly going to become my heel of choice. When I don't have to remember heel turning information it's pretty easy to sit in class or on the train and just crank through the project.

Recently, Melissa (of Loose Ends) also tried out the afterthought heel. She was a good deal more scientific about it and got beautiful results. Her post is definitely a worthwhile read.

Probably the only thing I would do differently for these socks is that I would knit about 1-2" less from the heel waste yarn to the end of the toe. I'm going to measure a pair of socks with a standard Dutch heel to get the exact measurement I need to worry about for myself. These socks came out a tad too long in the toes to be considered an absolute success, but not too long to make me motivated enough to rip the toes back and repeat. It might not look like it, but I almost couldn't get thes socks on. I knit these socks very tightly knowing that the fabric would loosen up when washed. So the little bit of extra in the toes helps give them a more comfortable fit overall (at least for me).

But, of course, I couldn't finish one pair of socks without starting another...

Meilenweit Cotton Multi-Jacquard 405

I really like this yarn. Not so much to knit with, but the feel of it after it is knit up. This Meilenweit Cotton Multi-Jacquard is a blend of 45% cotton, 42% wool and 12% polyamide. I'm pretty taken with the color, too. I think this yarn is going to make for great summer socks. I'm doing my "standard" sock -- cast on 64 stitches, K2P2 rib for an inch and a half and then knit in the round until the heel, pick a heel, knit to the toe. Nothing fancy. But I did decide to try something new with these socks -- sock knitting on one big circular needle.

I really didn't think I would like the one needle, thing, but it's actually turning out to be very easy and very convenient -- and I don't have a second needle flopping around, so I think it will be great for when I go to my programming class tomorrow night!

No, I didn't finish a second sock, but I do have two socks in progress. That's part of my solution for solving the "Second Sock Syndrome" problem. I'll knit one sock from a pair, switch to another first sock, and then go back to the second sock from the first pair. One of my dirty little secrets is that I don't actually mind the seemingly endless stockinette involved in knitting socks on size 0 needles. Going around and around is soothing, and I can knit while paying attention to something else. Like, say, a programming class.

Yes, I am a bad, bad disrespectful student.

I used to feel guilty about playing with my PDA in class or doing something like knitting. Then I remembered that I am the one paying to be in the class, and decided that as long as I am not hindering others from learning, then quiet activities are not completely reprehenisble (I understand that those of you who teach for a living might feel differently). And I have never really learned how to take notes when it comes to programming classes. It's mostly about listening and asking questions. I could listen, answer questions and ask reasonably good questions while working on my sock. In fact, I felt like I focused a little better because my hands were busy. Not sure how that works, but it does.

Opal Southwestern Socks

After a little more TV watching tonight, I am now past where I have inserted the yarn for the afterthought heel. So now I am getting very excited about adding another pair of socks to my collection. Wish me luck getting this one finished over the weekend.

The other sock project in progress is a pair for John using the Esprit cotton elastic yarn from Elann (just like Cascade Fixation only a bit cheaper). I'm using Rob's very excellent (and easy to memorize) Broadripple sock pattern in the color "French Navy", a man-approved color.

Start of Broadripple in French Navy

I've just started, but I think this sock should really fly. Size 3 needles feel like knitting with tree trunks compared the size 0s. John surprised me by not being disturbed by the waves and eyelets, so we both win, since he gets another pair of socks in a solid color and I get to do something interesting. I suspect this will be the first of several pairs of Broadripple socks since I have quite the nice little stash of Esprit

Finished Man Socks in Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Midnight Sapphire

Look what I finished tonight. Actually, about 15 minutes ago. I had a lot more yarn left over than I thought I would. I have another skein of manly Bearfoot. I think I will probably add an inch onto the cuff on the next pair. This cuff is only 6", and I know John would have liked them to be a little longer.

But static sock pictures are no fun, so John was kind enough not only to model them, put to put his feet up on my desk so that I could get them under the Ott light. Natural light bulbs are an incredible thing. It's not completely like getting a real outdoor shot, but without it, there would be no color visible in these socks besides black.

Sock Model Shot: Still Not Sure About Short Rows

I'm still not sure about the short rows. You can see from the sock on his left foot that I didn't resolve my little gapping problem. Also, the heels also seem a little shallow for John's heel. I might try this technique for a pair for myself, but I think I'll probably go back to a Dutch or afterthought heel for John's next pair.

Although I think he would have preferred a longer cuff (he kept asking me if I could just knit up from the ribbing), I consider them a success over all. Even from his perspective. How do I know? After I took the picture, he wouldn't give them back. Looks like it will be a while before I get to fix that gap...

P.S. The KIP is tonight! Come and meet up with us at Letizia's on Division.

One Down...

Even though I haven't had a lot of knitting time this week, I did have a chance to finish John's sock over the weekend. I would have shown it off earlier, but I wanted a real daylight shot that showed off the colors in the yarn better. I think this picture gives a much better demonstration of what this yarn really looks like. Dark enough to be man acceptable, handpainted enough to be knitter acceptable.

In spite of the success of the afterthought heel that I tried on my Opal sock, I decided that I would try out Priscilla Gibson-Roberts short row heel on this sock. It was an interesting thing to watch come together, and over all I thought her instructions were very good. But I am still trying to decide whether I like it or not.

The Dream Sock Heel

To be fair, what I am actually trying to decide if I like is that corner area where it is always difficult to keep a hole from showing. I wasn't really successful with this sock (it would be easy to see if John was modeling it, and you can probably see how big and loose the stitches in that area look). Fortunately, it's also pretty easy to do a little inside work on the sock to shore that area up.

If anyone out there has done this heel before, I'd be curious to know how you get those areas tightened up. This was one of the first times I was thinking that it probably would have worked out better with double points than with my two circulars.

I didn't follow PG-R's toe -- I just did my usual simple toe. By the time I got to it, I just didn't have the energy to think through the short rowing process.

And of course, this sock did get a try on. John liked it a great deal, but gave me the sad face again and told me he thought it looked lonely -- and that it was getting warmer. So I've got the second one cast on now, in the hopes I can finish it before Spring has really Sprung into Summer.